Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Four flights today in a more advanced glider, and I was tired, so I decided to do some token exercise: two laps around the lake with the paddleboat, in opposite directions.

Cloudy in the morning, so in retrospect I could have gone for a run then, but we were waiting for it to clear up, and getting tired before flying probably wouldn't have been the best idea anyway. But around noon the sky cleared out and and it got beautiful -- I got four flights in, and at the end of the day the easiest way to get a little exercise was to grab the unicycle and do three laps out to Rte. 33 and back as it got dark. Works much better with the seat raised up.

I got a picture of this place, viewed from the NW. The ride in the lower right of the picture is where I was riding.

At Fred Howard Park in Tarpoon Springs. The weather was stormy, and nobody was flying, so I headed off to the beach. Parked at the entrance and walked briskly out to the island. I've never been to a tropical island paradise, so here I am:

Okay, so technically it isn't tropical, and the island is about 50% asphalt parking lot (no exaggeration), but it's the best I've got so far.

Down to Honeymoon Island to watch the sunset and go for a run on the beach. I parked at the end oof the causeway and ran to the state park entrance, but there was a $2 entry fee for pedestrians and I had not brought my wallet, so I turned around. It was going to close at sundown anyway (why close a west-facing beach at sunset?), and it's the kind of place that had a lot of signs saying (and I'm not making this up) "State Park -- No Trespassing". So I went back and ran on the south side of the causeway beach, but the sand wasn't very cushy, so I went to the north side for the return trip, but that was all rocks and seaweed, so I ran on the grass.

Another AOWN moment -- I was amazed at how close I wass able to get to this guy, I suspect I could have touched him if I tried. He probably survives mostly on stealing bait.

C • Another nice photo! 2

There's a unicycle leaning against the wall in the clubroom, so I couldn't exactly just let it sit there. The flat tire was evidence that nobody has been using it, so I tracked down a pump annd went for a ride out to the main road and back. The seat is really low, so it was kind of awkward and uncomfortable. Have to find an Allen wrench next.

No imagination, same loop as yesterday.

I find myself amused by the sorts of trees that grow in the forest here.


However, I was walking through the forest and felt an unusually strong web catch my hair, and turned around to see this guy (well, gal):

As you can see from the fact that it's out of focus, it isn't actually on my hand, it's closer to the camera, but that is still one seriously big spider. If I'm reading this right, they eat birds and snakes.

C • Spiders 2

DOMS this morning, then I had one full tandem flight and three low-altitude "patterrn tows" (to practice things like how to handle when the weak link in the towline breaks), then in the afternoon I did two solo flights, not very high because the cloud ceiling was low.

And then to show you guys where I am, I did an outline of the flight park, with a few exploratory trail spurs. How many hang gliders can you spot inside the red line on the satellite photo? Kind of tired, but this is the start of getting back into shape. I'm amused that the GPS decided that there's 1 meter of climb, because I'm not sure where that would be -- this place is flat.

C • You crossed a whole lot of ... 5

The morning was basically foggy, so after I stopped at the flight park and said hi, I drove 45 minutes west and met Cristina and Melissa (and Melissa's dad) at the Croom map, which I had obtained a copy of from the Fluegels. Cristina had a map with the same red course, so the two of us set out to do it together while the Trouts went for a hike. 8.2 km, no compass, no controls, and we allotted 90 miinutes, so after five controls we just headed back, passing near one other that we figured we had no hope of finding on some vague vegetation feature, so we just waved to it from the trail. Shorts and sneakers (the woods were fine for that) and this wasn't overly strenuous because we spent a bunch of time discussing the features we could see and the navigation. Fun time, though.

The day cleared up later and I did two tandem flights at Quest Air, which went reasonably well.

C • Thanks for the run! 7

Got up at 4:30 in Williston VT, it was 0 F when I was driving through Montpelier, caught my plane in Manchester with not a lot of time to spare, got to Florida where it was 73 F, went to a Xmas dinner with the Fluegels at the home of a friend of theirs (hashing crowd), and stayed at their place.

Rhonda's morning yoga class.

Snow dealings, round 1: cleared enough of Nancy's driveway for her to be able to get in -- Stephen can take care of the rest of it.

Snow dealings, round 2: after retrieving my extension cord from Mom's house (and shovling her steps and the door to the woodshed), I got the ancient snowblower started and cleared the driveway. I did part of the mailbox as well, but it wasn't so happy with that sludge, and after a few stalls, the pull rope broke and I finished it with a shovel.

RHINO 6. A couple of inches of snow with more coming down and pretty cold, but I was dressed well for it. Dicey driving to get there, and I failed in my attempt to drive up the driveway, and I retreated and parked next to Phil by the mailbox. I carried a small flashlight for reading the map since the headlamp doesn't cast any light on it, and that worked satisfactorily. I used the low beam, and the strobing snowflakes were distracting at first. Couldn't figure out the trails on #3, and just went uphill through the green to get to the upper trail, which was probably slow. Short detour on the wrong trail going to #4. On #10, I probably could have executed the route better after I went by #8, but I don't trust the map much in that area, so I bounced off the trail intentionally. No idea how I managed to have such a good split on #1, but my bad finish split made up for it. (I clearly didn't give the GPS enough time to lock in before I started.)

The town is considering purchasing a portion of the Lane property, which makes up a significant portion of my most common running terrain. Having both a personal interest in seeing this happen, and a deep familiarity with the property, I was appointed to be the ConComm's delegate to the working group, and was the leader on a site visit today. We had something like 16 people show up, and I distributed excellent lidar basemaps that I commissioned Eddie to make. We did a loop that went around about half of the parcel that we're interested in, then scooted along the back boundary of the piece with the house on it that would be sectioned off and sold separately, and the remaining people (only four of us still there at the end) took a lok at some of the terrain across the street (which the town is not looking to acquire). Not moving very quickly, and there was a fair amount of stopping and discuss things, but it was still moving around outdoors.

I've really been trying to not do this...

C • Oh dear.... Hopefully not ... 4

Sprint at Mt. Tom. A couple of questionable route choices, plus I started from #5 to #6 in the wrong direction, and missed to the left climbing to #8 (saw it to my right as soon as I topped out). A few seconds out of second behind Peter and Tim, Clint well in first.

Visit-All at Mt. Tom. The German word for orienteering is Orientierungslauf, but there wasn't much Lauf involved here. No particular problems, but some very nice woods, and a nice course as well. Again a few seconds behind second place (Clint and Peter ahead this time, with Tim in first). I lost a bit of time after the penultimate control when I punched the split on my watch and saw that I was missing one. I stopped and went over the map to make sure I had only missed a split, and not a control. However, at the last control I was still ahead of Peter, and he got me with a superior time in the chute, thanks to a better route choice.

Control order was 2-1-5-6-7-11-10-12-15-16-17-18-14-13-9-8-4-3. I had trouble finding the circle for #18 -- although I could see the number, I don't think I've ever before had a control where half of the circle was in a marked dangerous area. Nice weather, 30s F and dry, wore a cap but no gloves.

Twice out there I encountered people who were pin-punching, and decided that the correct posture for doing this was to stand next to the control and lean completely over it (the punch was below the control), thereby totally enveloping the whole control stand with their bodies, and it was evidently difficult to punch, because it took them a long time. Weird.

C • 18 8